Poor Will’s Almanack
By Bill Felker

Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2010
The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, Night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lunar phase and lore
The Elderberry Wine Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its last quarter Sept. 30 at 10:52 a.m. and then darkening toward its transformation into the Cricketsong Moon, due to take place Oct. 7 at 1:44 p.m.

The most favorable lunar time of day for fishing, scouting for game, feeding animals and overeating will be when the moon moves overhead in the morning. Cool waves due on Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 and 7 are expected to incite even more hunger in living creatures as they approach.

The darkening moon now favors planting root crops, setting spring flower bulbs and transplanting perennials. Best lunar grain harvest conditions, as well as the most propitious lunar times for pruning shrubs, weeding, trimming hooves, worming livestock, putting on shingles, cutting wood and having surgery, occur at the time of the waning moon.

All the major planets keep their September position this month. Venus, Saturn and Mars remain in Virgo, but they will have disappeared into the horizon by the time it gets dark in the evening. Jupiter stays in Pisces during October, coming up in the east at dusk and glowing in the far west before dawn.

The Summer Triangle is one of the most dramatic star groupings in September and October evenings. To find it, look directly above you about 10 p.m. There you should see the cross-like formation of Cygnus, with its brightest star, Deneb.

Just to the west of Cygnus, find Lyra, with its dominant star, Vega. South of both of those formations is Aquila. And its brightest star is Altair. If you connect Deneb, Vega and Altair with an imaginary line, you have the Summer Triangle.

Weather patterns
Cold fronts typically cross the Mississippi River on about the following dates: Oct. 2, 7, 13, 17, 23 and 30. As in September, the period between Oct. 19-25 is the time most likely to bring serious storms or damaging frost. Expect snow in the northern tier of states with any of these weather systems.

Full moon on Oct. 22 and new moon on Oct. 7 increase the likelihood of a hurricane coming ashore along the East Coast or a strong frost-bearing cold wave moving across the Plains around those dates.

Daybook
Sept. 27: After equinox, some poultry owners turn on a low-wattage light bulb in the chicken house in order to counter the effects of the shortening days on egg production. Since the best market for fresh eggs occurs between Nov. 1 and the end of February, you may wish to experiment with trying to keep your hens laying.

Sept. 28: With the arrival of September’s last front, average temperatures start to fall at the rate of about four degrees per week in most of the nation.

Sept. 29: When the heads of cattails start to break apart and asparagus yellows in the garden, complete autumn pruning of trees and shrubs. But don’t trim bushes that you want to see bloom in the spring.

Sept. 30: Milkweed pods have started to split, marking the end of September. Honey locusts are half yellow, buckeyes in the middle of full leafdrop some years; other years, their foliage is gone. Hickories are gold like the ashes. The first mulberry, sycamore and cottonwood leaves have come down in the wind.

Oct. 1: After the September tier of wildflowers and the October witch hazels end their seasons, the floral year comes to a close throughout the northern half of the United States. South to the edge of the tropics, there is no sequence after autumn except spring.

The land has no response other than to begin again. Even before all the leaves come down, that commencement is under way. Purple deadnettle and garlic mustard have sprouted. Wood mint grows new stalks. Watercress revives. Waterleaf slowly reappears along the rivers.

Oct. 2: April’s sweet Cicely, May’s sweet rockets, ragwort, dock and poison hemlock, June’s cinquefoil and hollyhocks, July’s avens and caraway, September’s zigzag goldenrod and small-flowered asters send up fresh leaves. Sedum comes back, stalky from its canopied summer. Wild rose bushes sprout new foliage. Moss thickens on rotting logs.

Oct. 3: If you are planning to make all your poultry free-range next year, consider reserving about one acre for each 100 chickens or 50 turkeys.

Countdown to middle fall
By Oct. 10, peak leafturn is starting to occur in woodlots where maples, ashes, buckeyes, wild cherry and locusts predominate. Most Osage are yellow now, a few ginkgoes starting.

Cottonwoods and the rest of the box elders lose their leaves, and holes open in the tree line. Fencerows are shedding their Virginia creeper. Grape vines hold on yellow green.

By Oct. 15, witch hazel, the last of the flowering shrubs, opens. Rains often take down the ashes and redbuds by this date, ending early fall. Full middle fall begins, bringing in the remaining maples for a week to 10 days.

Living with the seasons
Frost season moves down from the northern tier of states this month, burning tomato plants, tinting the trees and putting an end to tender annual flowers. Today, chances for a killing frost to transform your garden are about one in 10. By Oct. 20, the chances that a killing frost will have blackened the petunias are four in 10, and by the end of the month, eight in 10.

(Refer to the newspaper for the remaining portion.)